摘要
一、前言长沙出土古代文物,已有三十多年了。在三十年前,长沙近郊因烧砖取土,即曾发见很多古代陶器、铜器或玉器等。抗战时期,更出现了不少富有历史、艺术价值的珍贵文物,如"晚周缯书"和"战国漆器"。可惜这些重要的发见,都被当时的官僚、地主、古董商人和帝国主义分子所掠夺或毁坏。新中国成立後,党和政府对祖国文化遗产采取了坚决保护的政策,长沙和全国各地一样,认真地执行了这一正确的政策,大批的历史文物得以保存。1951年10月,中国科学院考古研究所来长沙发掘,1952年4月湖南省文管会组成长沙市近郊古墓葬抢救工作队,抢救基建工地的出土文物,1953年1月正式成立湖南省文物管理委员会文物清理工作队,
Since the liberation in 1949, the Commission for the Preservatioc of Ancient Monuments of
Hunan Province has excavated more than 1000 Ch'u tombs in the suburbs of Changsha. The pre-
sent paper is, however, confined to the 209 Ch'u tombs excavated in the south-eastern suburb of
Changsha between 1952--1956.
All these tombs had a rectangular carthen shaft in which the filling was often ram-
med. At one end or on the side of the shaft there was usually a wall niche where the
funerary pottery was placed. In the larger tembs, most of the tomb furniture were found
in the space between outer and inner coffins. Because of long burial in a climate which was noted
for its dampness, the coffins and skeleton were so decomposed in most tombs that no
trace of them was left. But in cases where a layer of white clay was used as a protective seal
around the outer coffin, a remarkable state of preservation was achieved. In all the excavators
came upcn 21 relatively well preserved coffins which revealed a highly complicated system
of tenons and morhses applied in their construction. A further example of the high level
of craftsmanship attained by the carpenters of the time was the exquisitively carved wooden plank
called 'Ling Ch'uang' (答床), often found at the bottom of som coffins where it served as a sup-
port for the corpse, with designs in open work of either highly stylized 'kuei' dragon motifs
or geometric patterns. Until its discovery through excavations in recent years, it had often been
taken as a work of unknown use from much later times.
Pottery was the most common funerary object encountered in the Changsha Ch'u tombs. They
may be divided into four main groups: (1) A grey coarse ware with cord impression, mainly
'li'; (2) A brown coarse ware, also mainly 'li'; (3) A grey fine ware which constituted the bulk
of Changsha Ch'u funerary pottery, with the shapes of 'ting', 'tun', 'hu', 'tou', 'p'an',
'po' (bowl), 'shuo' (ladle), etc.; (4) A brown fine ware with similar shapes as those of group
(3). Nearly all the 835 vessels excavated from the 196 of 209 tombs were low-fired wares
unsuitable for daily use. There was also a considerable number of painted pottery decorated
with either geometric or 'cloud' patterns in brilliant colors of red, yellow, blue, white and black
painted after firing. (See the color plate) Such decorations were usually found on the cover or
belly of 'ting', 'tun' and 'hu' as weil as on the rims or center of 'tou' and 'p'an'.
An outstanding feature of these tombs was the abundance of bronze weapons excavated,
especially swords which alone counted 82 out of a total of 209 tombs. This fact tallies well with
the martial spirit and the love of swords displayed by the Ch'u people as related in 'Ch'u Tz'u'
('The Songs of Ch'u'). Some of the swords were found with their lacquer sheath still pre-
served in a surprisingly good condition. Of no less interes? was a number of bronze 'ko',
decorated in a most unique fashion with numeroui tiny round or irregularly shaped spots in dark
silver spread over the entire surface, (Plate 10: 1, 3, 5, 8, 9 and Plate 11: 2) But the exact
technique of this unsual decoration favored by the warriors of Ch'u remains a mystery. The most
striking was, however, the discovery from a tomb of two bronze spearheads, each inscribed
with more than a hundred characters in a baffling pictorial script which was yet to be deciphered.
(Plate 12)Finally, an interesting wooden shield and a remarkably well preserved wooden quiver
complete with bow and arrows, round up the list of unsual weapon finds from Changsha Ch'u
tombs. (Plate 14:1,2 and 12).
Of great interest too was a bronze ewer decorated in its interior with fine incised design of
strangely garbed figures performing some ritual dance of an unknown nature, adorned by rows
of trees and birds as well as two fish near the spout. (See p. 49) Bronzes with nearly identical
incised decoration have in recent years been excavated from several other Warring States tombs
in Honan and Shansi. Mention should also be made of a well preserved lacquer 'lien' painted
in bright red on black with dramatic hunting scenes embellished with vivid design of wild birds
and beasts. (Plate 13: 3)
The forty five bronze mirrors excavated from these tombs add new strength to Changsha's old
reputation as one of the most famous provenances for early Chinese mirrors. Except for some plain
ones and one that has a decoration of writhing dragons in high relief against a plain background
(Plate 6: 1), they bear a striking stylistic resemblance to those reportedly unearthed by tomb
robbers from the Ch'u tombs in Shou Hsien region before World War Ⅱ (Plates 6 and 7), so
much so that some of them could very well be passed off as coming froh the same mould.
On the basis of the tomb structure, burial system and a comparison of the excavated objects
with those from the tombs of established date, the present group of Ch'u tombs are attributed to
three different periods: (1) The Early Period which might stretch as far back as to the beginning
of the Warring States or even to the end of Ch'un Chiu; (2) The Middle Period which rough-
ly corresponds to the Warring States; (3) The Late Period which might be as late as the early part
of the Western Han.
出处
《考古学报》
1959年第1期41-60,112-126,共35页
Acta Archaeologica Sinica
